The State Bank of Pakistan has advised banks/DFIs to ensure submission of unclaimed deposits data in database format (DBF) through Data Acquisition Portal 4 (DAP4) by April 7.
Under Section 31 of the Banking Companies Ordinance 1962, all banks/ DFIs in Pakistan are required to surrender to SBP all those deposits which have not been operated upon during the last 10 years, except deposits in the name of a minor or a government entity or a court of law, as stipulated under Subsection (1) of Section 31 of Ordinance 1962.
The amount of unclaimed deposits/instruments in Pak rupee (PKR) and in foreign currencies are required to be surrendered during the first week of April of each calendar year along-with a list of unclaimed deposits/instruments.
SBP has issued new directives regarding with submission of unclaimed deposits through a circular CPD Circular Letter No 2, here on Tuesday. "In order to streamline the process of acquisition of unclaimed deposits data, it has been decided to obtain unclaimed data in DBF through DAP4, primary gateway for data acquisition for SBP", the circular said.
To facilitate banks/DFIs in smooth transmission of requisite data for the year 2011, a comprehensive training session was arranged on March 7. Keeping in view the constraints faced by banks/DFIs in conversion of MS Excel data in DBF format, a DBF Generator along with DAP4 Users Manual and User Guide for preparing the data files has also been issued, it added.
Banks/DFIs are therefore, advised by SBP to ensure submission of unclaimed deposits data in DBF format through DAP4 by April 7, or by next working day, if the due date happened to be a holiday, each year. Further, banks/DFIs may deposit cheques/debit advices of equal amount of unclaimed deposits on the next working day, if the data is being submitted on last due date.